I believe Mystery Ranch has a quality product. They have been testing their stuff for years. There is a hilarious thread on TGR where they have pics from their product testing with dummies. A few of their charges to set off avalanches were dropped a little too close to the dummies. Good stuff.

^^From everything I've heard, Dana has an excellent reputation for his packs over the years. I haven't seen that thread on TGR, I'll have to look for it this afternoon. I'm still a little weary of a heavier pack though.

I'm so close to pulling the trigger on that pack. I'm still a bit concerned about weight, but then again it's only about a pound heavier than the ABS, or a pound and a half heavier than the BCA.

Price is hanging me up too. I can get the BCA fully equipped for around $600, but the bag isn't very versatile since you can't remove the airbag for other uses. Even though I'd be spending $400 more for the MR pack, I could still use it for other uses.

just gonna throw this out there - all of these will help to save your life, but only if you're wearing it (obviously). that said, weight is a huge issue for me maybe because i'm only ~150# - especially because these are all about 4+ pounds heavier than a normal pack....

at this time i am leaning towards the Mammur Ridelight RAS 30l then possibly supplementing with a smaller, lighter RAS enabled pack once they release the non-airbag-equipped RAS packs for sale...

Overall, unless price is the hang up, I would go with just about anyone else than BCA. Their track record with quality on their packs these days just sucks. I've seen their new packs and they look nice enough, but I don't know that they will hold up. Blown stitching that sort of thing. Their warranty department is good and they'll fix 'em, but who wants to deal with that?

The versatility thing. It's nice to have, but I wouldn't make that a deal breaker. You want to buy the pack that you are going to use. I that for over 90% of my bc endeavors, I am going to use one pack. Generally speaking. As far as for cross sport use. I also find that I usually go to something different that is more specific for what I am doing. Again that's me. Plus if you are going to drop that sort of coin on an airbag pack, do you really want to put wear and tear on the pack for other pursuits? Making it wear out quicker?

If you can, go try on the packs you are interested in. The MR pack may weigh more but it may also carry a ton better. Load it up and try it on. If it carries better, it's worth the extra pound of weight. I know that is a really key thing about the Mammut packs. They carry their loads quite well.

I just don't trust Mammut. I had one of their shovels (key word being "had") and the t-handle snapped off of it on about the 3rd use. Lost my faith in them right then and there. It's just unacceptable for virtually brand new safety/rescue gear to fail like that. It wasn't even like I was dogging on it. I was just digging a quick pit.

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"People say that marijuana smoking is going to get in the way of my career. I say to them that on the contrary, my fighting career is getting in the way of my marijuana smoking." -Nick Diaz

Hmmm, I haven't used any of their avy tools, but Mammut is a company with a very good rep with safety gear. Used tons of their ropes over the years for climbing, their beacons are excellent. Most every one I know prefers their airbag packs. It's what I am planning on rocking this year.